DDAL05-11 Forgotten Traditions (5e)

The origin of runes has long been lost to the majority of sages and wizards, save those with giant blood.

However, with the shattering of the Ordning, the magic of runes has once again emerged into the Realms. Adventurers must delve into a ruined complex beneath the Spine of the World, suspected by SEER to be the birthplace of that arcane tradition.

A Four-Hour Adventure for 5th-10th Level Characters

Also included in the purchase of this adventure is a version specially converted for use with the Fantasy Grounds virtual tabletop software. The converted adventure features all the text and maps from the original adventure along with cross-linking of monsters, spells, magic items, equipment, and story elements, plus the powerful rules automation for which Fantasy Grounds is known.

I've played through this several times as well as ran it twice. And both times I cannot express how interesting the module itself is. I'm not completely up to speed on all the lore but there was a lot of content here and most of my group spent their time roleplaying or (as players) giving more lore on the background of this adventure. It was ran during Season 6 for me, so the dungeon-crawl feeling was something that the players really enjoyed.

Christopher MOctober 08, 2018 4:29 am UTC

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Am running Storm King's Thunder and have got this module to run after chapter 2. I keep seeing references to the SEER, is this an adventurer's league thing? I'll work out my own hook but curious as the SEER keeps coming up but I cant find an actual explanation.

Patrick BOctober 07, 2018 6:18 pm UTC

<Spoilers>

Forgotten Traditions

Part 1. The adventure begins with the characters having arrived (whether sent by SEER, their factions, or on their own individual search for adventure and wealth) at the Seven Stones, a stone giant enclave.

Part 2. From the circle, the adventurers venture into Hotun-Shûl, and traverse its halls and chambers in search of the secrets of rune magic and the history of Ryndölg himself.

Part 3. The characters’s incursion into the temple activates a long-dormant rune-engraved guardian which the characters must face if they wish to escape the complex.

Part 1 is a brief but informative beginning to the module and provides opportunity for interaction and roleplay with a stone giant. He can be used to provide additional background for two faction secret missions. The description of the other standing stones roots the module and setting in mythology.

Characters that express interest...See more in the ritual can be rewarded with the “Dreamwalker” story award and the end of the module. It is a cheap award at 25 downtime days and lets a player take chance with a D20 roll. Once they can replace any attack roll, saving throw, or ability check made by them or a creature that they can see with the number rolled. There is really no downside as they can help a roll with a high number or stick it to a villain with a low one.

Part 2 is a crawl through the Halls of Hotun-Shul. Here the players will encounter monsters, traps and learn about the mythos of the giants themselves. Optionally, DMs may throw in some up to three dead /wild magic zones. It is their choice when and where.

Most of the information is provided using history checks from artwork and via a giant ghost. Beware: The history and hierarchy of the Giantkin contains a long and confusing list of names. I think there was also a mystery about some giant killing another? Honestly, I was lost at times.

Some of the players were obsessed with completing unfinished friezes. Unfortunately, 100s of mending spells were needed to learn about Hartkiller. I had to wonder why add it if there is zero chance of the players being able to do it within the timeframe of the module. The obelisk in another room was a monumental timewaster.

If a player is still interested at the conclusion, they may gain the “Student of Stone” story award. It is costly at 365 downtime days but grants several cool background abilities. First, the player gains the benefit of the dwarven Stonecunning trait. If they already possess the Stonecunning trait, it triples the proficiency bonus instead of doubling it. In addition, they also gain proficiency in mason’s tools and the Giant language if not already proficient. I have to admit, that’s a lot of bonuses wrapped into one award.

The combats in the mission were appropriate for a Tier 2 party and the traps could be avoided pretty easily. None of the traps would kill outright but could wear down an already weakened party. Some of the encounters in this module can be substituted for other depending on which secret missions were undertaken.

The players remarked that the encounter with the remorhazes was particularly brutal. The ceiling collapse mechanic made what should have been an easy fight a difficult one. At the end of each turn, an odd numbered dice roll caused a chunk of ice to break loose and fall onto a random creature. That character and any other creature within 10 feet of it had to make a saving throw or take bludgeoning damage. Ultimately, the players chose to spread apart to minimize the chance of an ally getting struck.

Part 3 has the players try to escape past an animated stone golem guarding the exit.

The players thought they were done. Tee hee! It is encounters like this that remind me why I started DMing in the first place. The Rune Forged Guardian is simply a great final boss. It has several damage immunities and possesses elemental themed legendary actions abilities to boot. Being able to activate runes to switch from one elemental ability to the next allowed it a chance to exploit the weaknesses of a Tier 2 party. Does a player have some annoying ranged attack that has been thwarting you the entire session? Buffeting wind can handle that.

Loot time. The concept of making potions by crushing gems makes for nice flavor and was well received by the players. The magic item recovered from the statue is the Opal of the Ild rune. Personally, I never cared much for the runes as I feel them underpowered.

This module is rich in story telling. It can sometimes to be to its detriment but the theme fits perfectly within the other modules from SKT. Having two secret missions offered a reason for player investment besides the usual “looting the dungeon/seeking adventure” motivations. I think the modules best feature was its flexibility. Traps and encounters could be added or swapped out depending on run time or secret mission. As a plus, it offers not one but, two story awards. Both are pretty darn good ones.

mark JAugust 30, 2018 3:47 am UTC

Love the design of the dungeon, and the theme of the friezes, depicting giant lore and history, is great.
I have a few problems with the way that the text is written:
-- first is that there are items listed under Treasure headings, which should be in the area descriptions, which are not; I had to amend my room descriptions, for the players, after their characters had already been poking around, or fighting monsters, for a while.
-- even though the swappable encounters are a cool idea, some of the areas, which are designed to accomodate different encounters, have confusing descriptions, and it's not clear if the read-aloud text is supposed to belong to a particular encounter, or the room, in general. ...I felt forced to use an alternate encounter, simply because I couldn't tell how one of the read-aloud texts was connected to the rest of the room; so, I ignored it, and used an alternate scenario....
-- the adventure hooks are a bit vague, and they assume that DMs and players have gone...See more through Season 5 sequentially. It's not an unfounded assumption, but AL is perfectly fine with not doing that, so I didn't do that, and I had to look through other adventures to supplement my understanding of this one. Didn't appreciate that.
-- also, there's a contradiction, in the texts describing dead magic and wild magic areas. One text says that the map indicates these areas, but the callout text says that the map does not indicate them. ...turns out it's the latter.

The adventure is good, but it took a lot of preparation to even understand it. I highly recommend making your own shorthand notes supplement for it.

Tyler KJune 24, 2018 5:36 pm UTC

This module was great, interesting puzzles and lore and whatnot everywhere. The final boss was a joy to run and the players enjoyed it a lot.

Matthew WJanuary 14, 2018 7:30 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Travis: I loved running this adventure because it sprinkles in the right amount of cunning challenges, puzzles, combat, and story together into a cohesive package. Your party may end up sapped of their resources and spell slots.

I loved that success requires one to survive challenges and/or combats to be rewarded with a non-standard treasure - knowledge.

The final encounter was quite challenging to the small party I DMed. I'm glad DMs are provided with a combat toolkit. Solid use of tactics will make this combat difficult. I was able to cause a low AC monk a great deal of pain as the foe adjusted his tactics and survived longer than they expected.

One of the characters who played this adventure, a dim goliath fighter with the acolyte background, had a humorous and storied history surviving Barovia. The main story award was a natural fit for this character, trying to understand his place in the ordining as a goliath giantkin. He's enjoyed throwing DM rewards to fulfill the...See more long-term goal visiting this location often.

Jude FNovember 25, 2017 7:38 pm UTC

This was a great adventure for murder-hobos and lore seekers alike. Great encounters all around. I highly recommend this to all players and DMs. 5/5

Travis WSeptember 19, 2017 10:00 pm UTC

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Woot, woot! Platinum! Thanks everyone!

Angelo PAugust 26, 2017 1:23 pm UTC

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guys, the "Haug, the Hill Rune" is not displaying anything (just empty New Drawing) in the Fantasy Grounds module. It's bugged, can you please fix it?

Lawrence CMay 14, 2017 11:16 am UTC

Do wild magic zones affect magic items?? I see that in 5e dead magic negates all magic entering the area (a change from previous editions) but has wild magic changed to affect activated items like dust, rings or potions??

Jasmine LMay 14, 2017 11:20 am UTC

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Wild magic triggers when you cast a spell. Casting a spell from an item counts (e.g. Ring of Jumping, Staff of Fire, spell scrolls), but activating an item that doesn't cast a spell does not (e.g. Wings of Flying, Bag of Tricks, potions).

Jasmine LApril 24, 2017 8:24 am UTC

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Me getting the Deja Vu quest with this mod:

Runthrough #1: "Oh wait! There were suppose to be areas of unstable weave in this dungeon, weren't there? Whoops!"
Runthrough #2: "Okay, let's put a few little wild magic zones here, a couple dead magic zones here, that might introduce some interesting tactical implications."
Runthrough #3: "Let me just circle a few small areas that will NOT be unstable weave."
Runthrough #4: "THE WHOLE DUNGEON IS A WILD MAGIC ZONE. ROLL 1d100."

Sam UApril 11, 2017 6:39 am UTC

PURCHASER

So, I've read the comments and am preparing to run it at my table. The Boss starts out as a Challenge 10 creature, then adds legendary and lair Actions. I think any group making it through the final challenge should get much higher experience. Should it not be at least a Challenge rating of 13?

Stephen HJanuary 19, 2017 12:35 am UTC

I was surprised by the finale here. We were a group of 5th level PCs playing the DDAL series and we were no match for our foe. It was horrid. We elected to role play and walked away, giving up everything.

Curtis GJanuary 19, 2017 12:50 am UTC

And I had a different experience. I ran 7 players with an APL of 6....so we ran at VERY STRONG...and they had NO PROBLEM with the final monster.

Travis WJanuary 19, 2017 6:23 pm UTC

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It can be a tough fight--especially if you're playing down with fewer group members.

Jasmine LFebruary 15, 2017 7:39 am UTC

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Some parties may be literally unable to deal any damage at all to the boss because of its various immunities. I'm running it for a relatively low-level group this weekend, and I plan to make use of my DM Empowerment to make an alternative adjustment to the encounter—instead of removing its lair actions, I'm going to take away that one really nasty immunity and replace it with resistance. That oughta give them some hope.

Travis WFebruary 16, 2017 4:35 am UTC

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I completely support this! The guardian can absolutely be a challenge, it's designed to be versatile and able to adapt to different foes. Mix it up and have fun!

Francisco SFebruary 20, 2017 11:48 pm UTC

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Are the crystals found in the runes chambers the runes itself? It's not clear for me what the rune described is, and then the treasure mentions a crystal with a magical property.

Travis WFebruary 23, 2017 5:15 pm UTC

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The crystals are just consumable magic items--akin to potions.

Aaron DMarch 13, 2017 1:11 pm UTC

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I just ran this adventure for three level five adventurers. All of the encounters were essentially impossible for them when running at the very weak difficulty. I think that difficulty level needs to be rebalanced a little here. In particular:
Two elementals: The damage resistance was too much, the party just decided to run away.
Hill giants: I didn't include the orog slaves, just two hill giants. They managed to kill them, but with one player death and a whole lot of luck.
Guardian: I don't see how this is even possible to beat due to the damage immunity. Most level 5/6 characters don't have magic weapons. The party decided to escape with the fly spell. I agree with Jasmine's comment below, removing the damage immunities is necessary for very weak parties.

Curtis GJanuary 10, 2017 8:30 pm UTC

Still preparing this adventure for this weekend...one big editorial problem is plural possessives. I keep seeing factions's and agents's ....you don't need to add that additional "s".

Travis WJanuary 10, 2017 9:25 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Although it's odd and not widely used elsewhere, Wizards prescribes the use of a possessive s even in words that end in s.

Curtis GJanuary 10, 2017 9:30 pm UTC

OKIE DOKIE....I have never noticed that before....now I guess I will just have to deal w/ the Jar Jar Binks voice i hear every time I read that :o)

Travis WJanuary 10, 2017 9:49 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Great, now I'm going to do it.

Stephen HJanuary 19, 2017 12:38 am UTC

I think it might help Wizards to involve some seriously gifted editors, perhaps tested by their understanding of the apostrophe. You cannot argue that Wizards has a sensible position on apostrophes when we are in the season of Storm Kings's Thunder.

Curtis GJanuary 19, 2017 12:51 am UTC

I agree with you....but the title on the cover is Storm King's Thunder....only one king...now if there were 2 kings....then it would be Storm Kings's Thunder :o)

Stephen HJanuary 19, 2017 7:25 am UTC

Hmm, I'm sure the title I've seen on the book had no apostrophe at all, though I see that online the title has been corrected.

Travis WJanuary 19, 2017 6:16 pm UTC

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The Chicago Manual of Style makes this accommodation.

Travis WJanuary 04, 2017 3:27 am UTC

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It was my intent to include a full complement of maps with the adventure, but they were excluded due to size concerns. However, I will be posting them as a separate product--completely gratis.

christopher WJanuary 04, 2017 5:46 pm UTC

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what is the magic cert/items in this module

Travis WJanuary 04, 2017 9:34 pm UTC

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Spoilers are bad, mmkay?

THOMAS BJanuary 07, 2017 6:56 pm UTC

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A scroll of detect magic and a potion of healing.

Curtis GJanuary 10, 2017 8:28 pm UTC

Hey Travis...do these maps include where the dead and wild magic areas are? I am not seeing those marked on the maps in the adventure....though the text on page 9 says that they are.

"These are areas where the Weave has been damaged or divorced completely from the world. They are identified on the map."

Travis WJanuary 10, 2017 9:50 pm UTC

PURCHASER

That is a holdout to a previous version. It shouldn't really be there. If you keep reading, the sidebar informs DMs that "[t]he areas aren’t defined in the map or the encounter, simply designate one to three areas on the map as being affected by unstable Weave. They should be large enough to present a challenge, but not so large or numerous as to render spellcasting characters ineffective."

In a nutshell, throw a few patches here and there where it will heighten the narrative, but don't go overboard.

I'll see what I can do to get that removed in a future version; thanks for the heads up.

steven CFebruary 06, 2017 10:02 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Were the maps ever posted? I cannot find them on the site - unless I'm not looking for the right thing?

I did have fun with this mod - the lore, the history etc was a really nice touch. But with all of that going, it really felt as if it was a long trip to a Giant Museum (pun intended). Not every character (or player for that matter, would be able to tak [...]

Forgotten Traditions is a dungeon crawl which takes place in a lost and abandoned giant museum, from the days of giant civilization. The scope of the module runs the full D&D gamut: combat, exploration, and social encounters. The dungeon [...]

Interesting mod - I had first thought this was heavy RP, however it was more a Dungeon Crawl. What is excellent about this mod is the extra optional or replacement encounters. This allows for excellent replayability. I do think the linear map though co [...]

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